“I don’t expect you to understand… I love her.”

She heard the officer before she saw him. Simone knew this was her last moment in her beloved school that had given her so much.

They took her; one at each arm. It was worth it.

“Wait!” it was Annabelle. There were no words. She pressed the beads into Simone’s hand, hoping the unspoken gesture would be understood.

                Simone closed her eyes. She tangled her fingers in the beads, grasping them as tightly as possible. Her life had changed so quickly, almost impossibly. She couldn’t grasp the magnitude of the situation fully at present. She laid her head against the window and listened to the wind rushing by.

—

            Annabelle returned to Simone’s room. She looked at the bed, sheets still tangled with remnants of their lovemaking. Tears came. She walked to the desk where Simone’s photos lay. Annabelle recognized her own smiling face. The memory came back to her unbidden.

            “The girl in the pictures – were you in love with her?”

            “Yes.”

            Annabelle pressed the photo to her chest.

***

            Hope is an incredibly human emotion. It gives us reason, purpose. In those dark times when everything seems to close in upon us and there’s no way out; even then there is still a tiny spark of hope. It was all Annabelle could do. The trial had no set date yet, but she knew it would come. Simone would be ruined. The school would be ruined. She would be ruined, but what did that matter?

            Mother Immaculata had decided she could finish out her year at the school and receive her diploma. After that she was at the hands of her mother, who’d once threatened military school. Any punishment Immaculata could dole out would be a joke in comparison to what the good Senator Tillman could do. Taking Annabelle home after graduation felt like torture to the teenager, who’d rather be anywhere but with her mother.

“Annabelle.” Her mother’s voice invaded the quiet space in her head. The senator walked into her bedroom and dropped the morning’s newspaper down on the bed.

The headline: “No Charges to be pressed…” above Simone’s photo. Annabelle looked up at her mother. She didn’t need to read anymore. “I’m leaving.” She announced.